Simulation App Speeds Up Electric Truck Battery Design
IEEE Spectrum Brianne Costa
A consortium led by Resolvent and Volvo Group Trucks Operations used multiscale simulation and a custom simulation app to model how laser welding affects electric truck battery lifetime and robustness during manufacturing. The LaserBATMAN project ran from May 2022 to May 2025. The result is an app that lets Volvo’s R&D test and optimize busbar weld parameters and predict battery pack performance, including temperature, state of charge, and SEI thickness.
Why it matters
This article is brought to you by COMSOL.These days, no one blinks an eye at two-day, one-day, and even same-day package deliveries. Despite the plethora of localized fulfillment and distribution centers that have cropped up to meet the demand, delivery trucks still need to make considerably long drives, often over highways. To reduce fuel and maintenance costs as well as carbon emissions, companies are investing in electric trucks for their delivery fleets. While turning to electric trucks is a promising solution, the battery packs incorporated into these automotive designs often fall short in the lifetime needed to make long-distance highway travel feasible.To help overcome the issue of battery lifetime, a consortium of universities and industry partners incorporated multiscale simulation and a custom simulation app into the battery manufacturing process. The organizations involved in this project were Aurobay, Resolvent, the European Commission, the Technical University of Denmark (